BA changes Club Europe seating again

British Airways is making the second set of changes to its Club Europe seating layout this year, with the amendments due to take effect from September 2.

Earlier this year BA went from a 2-3 layout in the majority of its short-haul Club Europe cabins, to a 3-3 offering, but with the middle seat on each side being kept free.

The airline advertised this as guaranteeing all Club Europe passengers would have a window or aisle seat, and “benefit from greater privacy”, but the changes also meant that the seat itself was reduced in size from the larger converter seat offering, to the same seat size as that in Euro Traveller (economy).

There was a great deal of discussion (and confusion) about the move among our regular readers (click here to see a forum string on the topic), with most travellers seemingly against the new configuration, and BA has responded by reverting back to the wider seats from September 2. In a recent email to its regular customers BA said:

“As you may know, in February this year we changed the seating configuration in Club Europe so that every customer would have an aisle or window seat and benefit from greater privacy. We did this by adjusting the seats and ensuring we kept the middle seat free.

Over the last few months we have asked for feedback about the new seating plan. Many of our customers have told us that, while they like always having the option of a window or an aisle seat, they would prefer to have a little more personal space.

We have taken this feedback on board and will be making further enhancements to our Club Europe cabin by widening the seats and reintroducing the original configuration*, as of September 2, 2009. And to ensure you always sit in an aisle or a window seat we won’t book customers into the middle seat.”

*Changes apply to all British Airways and CityFlyer operated services excluding Boeing 767 aircraft that currently operate 2:2:2 configurations in Club Europe.

For BA’s graphic representation of the current and new seating configuration, see the image below.

In other news, BA’s trial of offering a complimentary taxi service for business and first class passengers from Heathrow T5 came to an end on August 18 (see online news May 14). When Business Traveller contacted the airline today, a spokesperson said that it was “reviewing data and customer feedback” from the trial, and added that feedback from customers had been “positive”. At present the airline has not made a decision whether to make the trial a permanent benefit for premium customers.